The Lovely Girl's Travels Through a Second Life

Inner Wisdom

Happiness, true happiness, is an inner quality. It is a state of mind. If your mind is at peace, you are happy. If your mind is at peace, but you have nothing else, you can be happy. If you have everything the world can give – pleasure, possessions, power – but lack peace of mind, you can never be happy. ~ Dada Vaswani

One of the things I know with all my heart is it is near impossible to lead a balanced life while inhabiting Second Life. I am inworld much less than most people but I still notice most days it takes too much time to complete the most mundane tasks. My one hour a day allotted on weekdays is sometimes pushed to within an inch of it’s life. ‘ell who am I kidding, most days the guilt sets in about one hour 5 minutes each day. I know, I shouldn’t feel guilt for something I plausibly enjoy, right? I’d agree, but I made a pact with myself. Two years ago I “retired” from Second Life because I was feeling physically ill and I promised I would live a healthier lifestyle. In my head, I envision a pie wheel, not unlike the retro-cool ones used in the game Trivial Pursuit. Each day as I completed the tasks to make my life a complete balance, I would visually add a colorful wedge of pie. The categories, or pieces of pie, were those common for balance, such as: sleep, play, work, creativity, relationships and rest. You would think the sleep and work would be a no brainer, but I was soon amazed at how much my sleep was deprived by the foray into Second Life (my play slice). The sad part is it had a trickle down effect, making my work pie less effective and my creativity slice non-existent, meaning I had no time for the rest wedge because I had to “catch up.”

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Rethinking my living habits, I called an immediate halt to Second Life, at least for a small interim until I could manipulate my pieces of pie into order. I watched TV and computers less, walked, ran and read more and through the intense (yes, intense) withdrawals I began to see SL for the obsessive time drain it was, and decided to limit it’s potential to drain me, both physically and mentally. The result of re-consuming my own life instead of letting it be lived without me present? I am better adjusted and happier because I sleep more, healthier because I play in a physical way, work with focus, rest, and even have healthier relationships with family, friends, oh, and had the time to find a significant other. Why am I saying this? Because lately I’ve noticed there is a lot of unhappiness in Second Life. And if you are one of the unhappy’s, turn it off, tune into real life, live with purpose in the real because that is the world you were born into, not one of vapors, cosmic dust and inconvenienced atoms. Make a goal, start small, “I will turn this PC off every day at such and such o’clock and refuse to return until so many hours/days later.” It will be hard (in my case very hard), and you truly can tell people “no” you can’t help this time, because it IS your life and your health at stake here. But trust me, when you emerge on the other side, the land with oxygen, puppy dogs and non-virtual grumpy cats, I think you will start to wonder why you let yourself be so consumed for so long. Consumption by anything, whether, drugs, alcohol or games, is a ticking time bomb, leading to fatigue and illness. Taking the time to care for yourself, that is what leads to comfortable aging.

The take from? Just running off at the keyboard I suppose. But if you do choose to practice a little bit start with being happy. Want to know a secret to fast happiness? Be engaging. Each day show one person attention (I am actively listening to what you are saying), appreciation (I am truly thankful for you), and affection (as simple as touching someone’s shoulder or hand). You know what that does? It takes a tiny kernel of happiness and grows it into an entire field of happiness. And from where I’m sitting and watching? This world, and Second World, seems to be needing some happiness right about now. But that’s just my spin on it. Take it for what it’s worth to you.

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11 thoughts on “Inner Wisdom”

Miss Cao. You are wise but you knew that already and you very right. Selfishly I do hope that that you won’t run completely away from ‘online’ but.. if you did I would cheer you on. Like I will anybody who chooses to bring more balance and a healthier outlook on SL specific in their lives. Just not you and Peep ❤ *hides*

dang I am so far behind on your blogs ….doh!!! I went through a rough mental patch myself this past week lil moo, and I did unplug my PC. It was not entirely SL related was mostly upcoming b-day related but it put me in a funk and I didn’t like it, so without even seeing your post I took your advise and blew off SL for RL and now am back to my chipper sweet, somewhat lippy self lol. Love you

Second Life (R)

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